FORT WORTH, Texas, January 30, 2014—The Cliburn, with Sundance Square, will host a special memorial concert in honor of its inspiration and namesake, Van Cliburn, onThursday, February 27, 2014—the one-year anniversary of his passing. The tribute will be held in the new Sundance Square Plaza in downtown Fort Worth from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and will feature recitals by eight Cliburn Competition award winners:

Alexander Kobrin, 2005 gold medalist

Simone Pedroni, 1993 gold medalist

José Feghali, 1985 gold medalist

Antonio Pompa-Baldi, 2001 silver medalist

Maxim Philippov, 2001 silver medalist

Yakov Kasman, 1997 silver medalist

Alexey Koltakov, 2001 finalist

Steven Lin, 2013 jury discretionary award winner

The concert will be free and open for all to attend in Fort Worth, as well as streamed live online at Cliburn.org.

“Van was a member of the Fort Worth community who belonged to the world,” said Carla Thompson, Cliburn chairman of the board. “The Cliburn Board of Directors is hosting this event to celebrate his incomparable life and indelible spirit, not only for those attending the concert in person, but for all of his admirers and friends around the globe. Anyone can join us online for the live streaming—a true international memorial.”

“Van believed strongly in the encouragement of young talent, and the artists that will play each personally benefited from his inspiration,” said Jacques Marquis, president and CEO of the Cliburn. “He also had a lifelong commitment to sharing music with as many people as possible, so the partnership with Sundance Square to hold this event in their magnificent, public space is perfect.”

… not terribly well played. Nor is the music brilliantly constructed. The opening movement is 20 minutes long, verging on inarticulate. The second is embarrassingly derivative. It is only when you get to the adagio that the emotional storm-force of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s 12th symphony kicks in, revealing its inner anguish.

Written in 1976 in memory of his close friend Dmitri Shostakovich, the symphony struggles with its own composer’s life in the shadow of a genius, exposing  untold depths of a human dilemma. I keep going back to hear it again.

Gertrud Stockhausen suffered from depression during her marriage, attempted suicide and was hospitalised in a mental institution. On May 27 1941 she was taken with 89 other patients to the killing centre Hadamar, in Hesse-Nassau.

Early next month, a memorial plaque will be set into the ground outside the house where the Stockhausen family lived in Bärbroich.

Here’s an informative press release (auf Deutsch). Much of the research into Gertrud’s life and death was conducted by a schoolgirl, Lisa Quernes from the Landesmusikgymnasium in Montabaur

Dame Josephine Barstow leads a stellar line-up to celebrate the life and roles of Richard Angas, the effervescent bass who died last August. 

Cast and booking details here.

Dirty, wet, concrete desolation.

I’m going there tonight. That C P E Bach had better be good.

Tom Strini was at the Wisconsin Lutheran College Recital where Frank Almond played the Lipinski Stradivarius – just before he was tasered by criminals, knocked to the ground and robbed of the object dearest to him in life. Read Tom’s report here.

We have heard from Frank who is physically fine and lying low, avoiding media and doing his best to help the police recover his precious Stradivarius.

A fascinating study from artsHub on the true state of the UK arts industry.

More than 3 in 4 employees are young women. Most have 5 jobs in 10 years. More than half work in London and their job satisfaction is sky-high.

Oh, just read the whole thing and give us your take on it. Far more interesting than anything you’ll hear at orchestra conventions.

Chrissie, Anna, Laura, …. everyone. We want to hear why you are happy with so little.

Oh, and let’s hear, too, from the 0.2% who earn over £200,000 a year.

The Berlin Philharmonic has let it be known that Gustavo Dudamel will take over its open-air Waldbühne concert on June 27 and an Italian tour it has planned that week, when Sir Simon Rattle and Magdalena Kozena are expecting the birth of their third child.

Bruce Broughton, a former governor of the Motion Picture Academy and head of its music branch, had one of the five best original song nominations in this year’s Oscars.

That’s nice, except it was in a movie hardly anyone paid to see. Bruce has been accused of getting his industry pals to boost his vote. The song, Alone Yet Not Alone, has now been struck off. ‘Using one’s position as a former governor and current executive committee member to personally promote one’s own Oscar submission creates the appearance of an unfair advantage,’ said Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Academy President. Statement below.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — On Tuesday night, the Academy’s Board of Governors voted to rescind the Original Song nomination for “Alone Yet Not Alone,” music by Bruce Broughton and lyric by Dennis Spiegel. The decision was prompted by the discovery that Broughton, a former Governor and current Music Branch executive committee member, had emailed members of the branch to make them aware of his submission during the nominations voting period.

“No matter how well-intentioned the communication, using one’s position as a former governor and current executive committee member to personally promote one’s own Oscar submission creates the appearance of an unfair advantage,” said Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Academy President.

The Board determined that Broughton’s actions were inconsistent with the Academy’s promotional regulations, which provide, among other terms, that “it is the Academy’s goal to ensure that the Awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner. If any campaign activity is determined by the Board of Governors to work in opposition to that goal, whether or not anticipated by these regulations, the Board of Governors may take any corrective actions or assess any penalties that in its discretion it deems necessary to protect the reputation and integrity of the awards process.”

An additional nominee in the Original Song category will not be named. The remaining nominees in the category are:

“Happy” from Despicable Me 2

Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams

“Let It Go” from Frozen

Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

“The Moon Song” from Her

Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze

“Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Sony Music have announced the sad, early death from lung cancer of Steve Ferrera,  senior VP of A&R at Columbia Records. A granduate of NEC and Juilliard, Steve looked after the likes of Leona Lewis, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Heather Headley, Ne-Yo, Rod Stewart and Bon Jovi. But when it came to merging the RCA’s classical Red Label into the Sony machine, he was notably sensitive to the anxieties and needs of artists and classical personnel and is warmly remembered by them.

The  Pittsburgh Emcee Jasiri X has released a video, ‘Checkpoint’, which makes Israelis out to be Nazis. We share it as a sophisticated example of the political propaganda that is going out these days under the guise of mainstream music. The lyrics are printed below.

Any station that plays this stuff should have its license reviewed.